


the last present

by ndnickerson



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, First Dates, First Kiss, Love at First Sight, Mutual Pining, Sharing a Bed, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-10-18 20:04:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10624179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ndnickerson/pseuds/ndnickerson
Summary: When Bess meets a tall, dark, and handsome stranger, Nancy's unprepared for what he will mean to her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at my Nancy Drew fic tumblr, nancydrewdiary.

The summer after she and Nancy move out to California, Bess starts working for a television production company.

She starts low, but she’s cute and bubbly and good with people, and by the following summer she’s helping cast for a new show. She’s working crazy hours just like Nancy is, and they joke that they could easily sublet the apartment to two more people, as long as those people had schedules as hectic as theirs.

Nancy invites her to a sushi lunch after she finishes a particularly hard case, the kind that will require a nice long soak in the tub and a few glasses of wine and a cleansing marathon of trashy movies. Bess is alight with excitement, though; her blonde hair falls in big loose curls, framing her face, and her rhinestone-studded brand-name sunglasses are perched on top of her head, her nails painted in the current bleeding-edge of fashion color. “So I drove out to that agency this morning, the one I told you about? It was almost a bust, but there was one bright spot. I saw the  _hottest_ guy ever.”

Every guy Bess meets in casting is the hottest guy ever. She’s dated a string of them, and they’re all the same: stubble-lined jaw, perfectly coiffed, shirt unbuttoned just-so and jeans slung low on their hips, glued to their cell phones. They work as waiters and scrabble for commercial roles, and they’re all looking for their big break, the way Bess was when she arrived. Nancy can’t help feeling sorry for them. She’s dated a few herself, but since that raging disappointment, now she has a strict no-male-models policy. “Oh?”

“The worst part? I can’t even cast him. He’s not working.” Bess picks up a segment of tuna roll with her chopsticks and dunks it into the dish of soy sauce.

“He’s sounding better all the time,” Nancy says dryly, picking up one of the edamame pods they ordered as an appetizer. “I hope your luck turns this afternoon.”

Bess shrugs. “I tried to give him my card—but, Nan, he's  _perfect_ for this bachelor-elimination show we’re going to start next month.  _Perfect._ ”

“I thought you said you were still looking for the nutty future-outcast. The one who will probably have a guitar.”

“And if he’s a good enough actor, he could  _be_ that guy.” Bess sighs. “Even if I can’t get him for this, maybe I can for something else. Seriously, you’d get it if you saw him. He is  _viciously_ hot, and yet he’s genuine and funny and down to earth…” _  
_

“And you got all this off a glance and a thirty-second interview.”

Bess shrugs. “What can I say? I just have an eye for this sort of thing.”

Late that afternoon, her hair pinned up, wine glass at her side as she soaks in the tub, Nancy closes her eyes and relaxes in the hot water. She needs a change of scenery. She’s thinking about Washington, where the trees actually change in the fall, where the cases she investigates won’t all relate to cheating spouses, dirtbag producers, and grasping actor-wannabes. But for as long as she’s out here, she has to keep an eye on her best friend, who has a bad habit of wearing her heart on her sleeve and falling way too hard for guys who don’t deserve it at all.

The next day, Bess calls her, her voice bright with excitement. “I got a meeting! I got a meeting with  _him!_ ” She almost sounds like she’s jumping up and down. “Oh, come with me,  _please_. Hide in the bar and do your secret-gadgety thing and find out all about him. Juicy blackmail, motivation, whatever. I  _need_ this guy, Nan, in the worst way.”

“It sure sounds like it,” Nancy sighs, shaking her head with a little chuckle. “So what will you pretend is the dealbreaker here? Four kids by three women, a raging drug habit, credit rating in the sewer? All three?”

Bess moaned a little in frustration. “Even so, he probably just needs a second chance.”

Nancy finds out later what Bess doesn’t have the nerve to say—that this guy is only in California on vacation, and he’s not ready for the commitment of a season of a reality show. But Nancy preps the way she usually does, packing up her camera and her lockpick kit, dressing in a navy cotton sheath dress with gold costume jewelry. She arrives fifteen minutes early, orders a bourbon rocks and crosses her legs and waits to see Bess’s reflection in the mirror behind the bar.

She’s only taken two sips of her drink when a man steps up to the bar two stools away from her and catches the bartender’s attention. “Scotch rocks.”

She’s keeping a lookout for Bess, but something makes her turn and glance at him, over the wire-rims she wears for show—and she very nearly does a double-take. He’s too handsome to be anything other than an aspiring actor, but she can’t imagine that he’ll be aspiring for long; he’s jaw-droppingly handsome, with long-lashed dark eyes, wavy dark hair, broad shoulders and a tall, muscular physique. She catches herself sweeping her gaze down his body and turns back to her drink with a little shake. Whatever fever Bess has, apparently Nancy’s contracted it, if only for the night.

She isn’t entirely surprised when Bess claims a seat a few minutes later and waves him over. So  _he’s_ the one.

She’s glancing over at their table when he happens to glance up at her, and their gazes meet, and the easiest way to do this would involve flirting with him so he comes over after the conclusion of his dinner date, persuading him to buy her a drink and then lifting his wallet…

But there’s something about the dark intensity of his gaze, the open and frank intelligence on his face, the graceful way he carries himself, that tells her she won’t be satisfied with one drink and a returned wallet.

It’s been too long. Bess wants him, likely not in a purely professional way. He’s an  _actor_.

But none of that stops her.

–

He’s polite with Bess. He keeps his distance and he’s non committal and he makes his excuses and apologies after one drink, telling her that he’s flattered but he can’t, and he even turns down the offer of a screen test.

And then Nancy finds an excuse to walk near their table, and Nancy makes eye contact with Bess, then Ned, then Bess again. Bess sees the way Ned looks at her; it feels stronger than anything, stronger than gravity, like the opposing poles of two magnets. His gaze seems hot enough to scorch her skin, to leave her lain bare.

As soon as he can, he wishes Bess a good night and heads toward the bar, toward Nancy. Her shift dress is unremarkable, costume glasses perched at the end of her nose and her hair pulled back into a low sleek ponytail. She should be hidden, but he makes a beeline to her.

“Hi,” he tells her, and she glances over into his eyes, then back to her drink—and feels, to her horror, that a little blush is rising in her cheeks. “I didn’t know if you were okay with having some company—and if you tell me to go away, I totally will. I just felt like I had to talk to you. Can I buy you a drink?”

It starts that way. “One drink,” she says, and he sticks to that one drink—while they’re there, anyway. Then they hit another place, and then they take a taxi ride up into the hills and look down at the city, and his fingers brush hers and she’s as bad as  _Bess_ , for God’s sake, they’ve only just met and she’s acting like a teenager on her first date.

He invites her up to his room and she wavers for a moment before she accepts; they go up to his hotel room and as soon as they’re inside his hand is gripping hers and and he’s so close to her, so close she can smell his cologne and soap.

And he leans down until his lips are just above hers, and she can walk away, she  _should_ walk away, this is foolish, this is—

She parts her lips and kisses him and it’s like freefalling.

He kisses her, scotch on his tongue and the trace of bourbon on hers, deep and slow and almost indolent, like he  _knows_ her, even though they’ve only spent three hours together. His hand cups her cheek and she feels like heat, like weightless longing, and she cannot name it.

She wants him. She wants his weight on hers and his hands all over her,  _everywhere_ , seeking and exploring and claiming her just as thoroughly as his kiss. And once he’s asleep she’ll walk away, because  _this_ , this is a liability.

He surfaces. “I’ll be in town a few more days,” he murmurs, his dark-eyed gaze almost hooded, his hand on her hip. He’s panting a little and her heart is only just beginning to slow. “Can I see you tomorrow?”

She means to say  _no_. What comes out is “Yes.”

She leaves soon after, painfully aware of him, aware of her mistake in letting herself be vulnerable and powerless to stop it. Bess is home when Nancy arrives; her friend is in her pajamas, hair up, face gleaming with moisturizer.

“So? Was he as good a fuck as he looks?”

Nancy flushes before she can stop it. “Maybe you’ll get another chance; he’s in town a few more days,” Nancy says, toeing out of her flats.

“Mmm. And Evan told me his flight was tomorrow,” Bess says with a little grin.

Nancy stops and stares at Bess for a moment. “You did this on purpose.”

Bess shrugs. “Hey. It worked, didn’t it?” she says with a smile. “And you never answered my question.”

“I might be able to tell you tomorrow night,” Nancy says before she can stop herself, and Bess hoots in approval.

–

It doesn’t happen the next night, not that she’s expecting it, really. She’s five minutes late because she gets caught up doing prep for her next assignment, but the traffic’s bad too, so it’s not so obvious. She generally doesn’t tell her dates about her job, but she tells him when they’re waiting for their appetizers. It’s just something about him. She feels like she could tell him anything, and that’s dangerous—and even more dangerous when he’s eager to hear more.

He tells her that he’s visiting because he had vacation to spend and his cousin invited him out for a little while; he’s been working in the same job since his graduation and he’s not sure if that’s what he wants to do for the rest of his life. He’s between girlfriends and he’s confident and able to laugh at himself and with her, and he’s completely fascinated by her.

It’s a heady feeling, and if the circumstances were different it would be  _perfect_ , to see how easily she could manipulate him. But she can’t.

They talk until three o'clock in the morning. He’s working in Chicago, and for a while they eagerly trade stories about restaurants and nightclubs. And then there’s a lull in the conversation and his gaze is magnetic, drawing her to him, leaving her practically vibrating with need. His embrace is strong, his kisses deep and intense, and her head is spinning when he pulls back.

“You have work in a few hours.”

“Yeah,” she admits reluctantly, shivering when his fingertips brush down the line of her spine.

“Can I see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” she murmurs just before he kisses her again. A Friday night date, telling her boss she’s unavailable for Saturday… it’s been a long time since anyone has been worth that hassle.

But when Friday night comes, when she’s caffeinated and already buzzing at the thought of seeing him again, she’s torn. On the one hand, she’s greedy for him, and whatever happens between them tonight, she will eagerly take it. On the other hand… his flight is Saturday, and it’s their last night together before he returns to Chicago and she goes back to her life. She’s never thought of herself as lonely, not until she imagines what will happen after his plane takes off. She’ll be back in River Heights for Christmas, she’s already decided, but the wait will be so long. And he’s perfect, and after he’s back in Chicago he’ll be dating again…

_You’re being foolish. Building castles in the sky when you have no idea…_

When she sees him at the bar, though, all her doubt falls away when he smiles.

Seven o'clock took forever to arrive; time passes at double-speed after that. Every time she glances at her watch, it seems another hour has gone by, another hour closer to his departure. He wants to bottle it all up, his last experience in the city, and they go to a comedy club, another bar, and end up back in his hotel room.

As soon as the door’s closed he has her pinned against the back of it, his fingers curling at the hem of her dress, and she feels no doubt at all, only  _need_. She returns his kiss eagerly, reaching for the buttons of his shirt, and the feel of his bare skin against hers makes her shudder.

“Yes?”

“Yes,” she breathes as he unzips her dress.

Once they’re down to their underwear, wrapped around each other in his bed, Ned looks down at her, his dark eyes aglow. Her lips are swelled from his kiss and she feels like she did a long time ago, with her first boyfriend, when her heart had still been whole and unbroken. But they’ve known each other three days… and this may be the last night they share, and remembering that sends a wave of sadness over her, of something akin to desperation.

“It isn’t enough,” he whispers. “This isn’t enough, Nancy.”

She searches his eyes. “You don’t want this?”

He touches her lips with his thumb. “I want this,” Ned whispers. “And everything else. It’s not long enough. It’s not…”

They don’t sleep that night. They make out, wrapped around each other, but by some unspoken agreement they don’t make love, even though they both want to. It feels like making love would be the end of this; they’re about to be separated by so much time and distance, and she doesn’t need a long-distance relationship distracting her, and she doesn’t even know whether it would work for them. They talk about everything and he rolls on top of her, and she wants it so much but she doesn't—it’s like the last wrapped present under the tree, the solution to the mystery, the end of her desire.

She accompanies him to the airport, and they’re both half-crazed with exhaustion, and she blames that exhaustion when she finds herself at the point of tears while saying goodbye to him. They have each other’s phone numbers and email addresses, but he has no vacation time left, so they won’t see each other again for months. She clings to him like she’s losing her best friend, and he clings to her too, his lips brushing her neck.

“This isn’t the end, right?”

She shakes her head, looking up into his eyes. “It’s just a little break.”

“Until we meet again.”

“Until we meet again.”

–

It’s their swap year, when Eloise and Carson and Hannah are supposed to come out to Los Angeles to see Nancy for Thanksgiving, and she’s supposed to go home for Christmas. But that still means five months.

She lasts two weeks.

She drops her bags off at her father’s house, tells Hannah that she will be back later that night or the next day, and drives into the city just before rush hour. She’s a detective and it took her no time at all to find out where he works, where he lives, any of it.

She turns it into a game, dressing in a business suit just this side of sexy, perching her costume wire-rims at the end of her nose, pulling her hair back—and sliding into red-soled black stilettos. She wants to surprise him, but she can’t help feeling nervous.

Since he’s an account representative, she says his name when she walks in, and gives a false name to the receptionist. She sits down in the reception area and picks up a magazine, crossing her long legs, trying to keep a smile off her face and failing miserably.

She only has to wait three minutes. “Miss Austin?” Ned says, and she hears his breath catch as he recognizes her, as she lifts her chin and gazes into his delighted face.

“I’ve been considering a change of scenery,” she tells him, but she can’t stop herself from grinning and spoiling it. “I thought you might be able to recommend some options.”

He reaches for her hand, and his eyes are glowing as he helps her to her feet. “I’ll see what I can do, beautiful.”


End file.
